9

CARLY

 

 

I think I might hate him. I barely know him and I’m not a hater, at all, but I might have real hate for this cocky asshole.

I somehow managed to keep my cool in there, but now that I’m walking back to my desk, my legs are shaky, and my ears are burning hot.

It wasn’t bad enough, finding out that the office I worked at was being closed in front of my new department. They had a goodbye party for me. They wished me well and had a cake for me. I was leaving on short notice and they’d even put money into a pre-loaded credit card with my goodbye card, so I could have some sightseeing money when I got here (even though I wound up using it for groceries, because Caitlin).

Yes, there were jerks there. Yes, some of them took credit for my work. But, not everyone. And they gave a crap when I left. 

And I had to sit and listen to the shocking news that they’d all be losing their jobs and absorb that shock in front of everyone without showing too much emotion.

I didn’t know how to show emotion without either looking like I didn’t care or like I cared so much that I’d offend Mr. Carmichael, who was beaming with pride about me and how I differed from them.

I mean, I had long pegged the vast majority of them as lazy sloths, but this was confirmation. It didn’t feel good, though. I did not feel vindicated or anything like that. And several of the back-office people, all the admin girls, they were great. They were my work-friends for two years, people I spent almost a third of my life with.

When I first met Mr. Carmichael in the copy room at lunch time when the office was empty (but for me) and helped him photocopy something when the machine was acting screwy, then got to chatting where he asked me questions about my job that led to the boardroom chat that was actually a job interview, an interview I didn’t know I was in, but yet I’d aced…I had no idea I was going to be the only one with a job from that whole company.

When the news came of Carmichael acquiring us, our bosses told us we had nothing to worry about. Either they lied, or they were lied to. And I hated finding that news out in a room of my new peers, because they’d probably think I was cutthroat.

Ally asked me if I was a backstabbing bitch-faced cunt. Would she think I’d lied when I said I wasn’t?

And to make it worse…with Aiden the asshole jerk strutting in there late, exuding all this alpha male authority, and every man looks at him with respect while every woman in the place looks at him like he’s a god or something and he pays absolutely no attention to anyone until he starts trying to make me look bad in front of the whole room? I have had it with this guy. He’s an alphahole. An alpha male asshole who wants to pound his chest and make everyone fall in line out of fear of him.

I feel like I just survived a trial by fire.

I’m reeling.

All I know at this moment is that I’m going to rock my job and prove myself.  If it kills me.

I also know I have to do it without letting him walk on me.

Somehow, I’m going to succeed here without being a doormat, without becoming a backstabbing bitch-faced cunt to anyone that doesn’t deserve it.

However…

If someone crosses me, they’ll have to be prepared to face the consequences. Carly 2.0 is going to be transformed like Linda Hamilton from Terminator to Terminator 2. A warrior.  Let’s just hope I don’t wind up incarcerated in a mental hospital in the process.

We get back to our cubes and Ally has a look on her face like she’s worried about me. She’s not saying much. She watches Aiden storm back to his office and Mr. Carmichael gives me a big smile as he heads to wherever his office is.

Aiden changes his mind and does a smooth about-face, then storms in the direction Mr. Carmichael went. A beat later, I hear shouting and then a door slam.

Heads are popping up like a busy prairie dog community all over the place and I pop up, too. I catch, from the corner of my eye, both Carmichael men in another glass office and the younger one is shouting at the older one, pointing his finger at him.

Yikes. I duck back down.

“You okay?” Ally pops up to face me from our shared half-wall

I nod, not able to hide feeling a bit shaken.

“That sucks about your old office.”

I blow out a breath.

“You had no idea?” she asks.

“None,” I tell her.

“Shit,” she mutters.

One of the IT people pokes his head into her cube, so she turns away from me to greet him.

The noise quiets and the normal office hum sounds return, so I decide to go through my employee binder and finish my cup of coffee.

I can’t help occasional glances over my shoulder with that perfect view of his desk.  Of him. After a while, the hairs on the back of my neck rise and I suspect someone is watching me.

It’s confirmed when I look over my shoulder and my eyes meet his. He sits there, leaned forward on his elbows, glaring at me, looking like he smelled something foul.

I shoot him a dirty look, (because what the heck did I do?) and then look back to my screen in front of me as I finish browsing the company’s web analytics report.

What have I done to tick him off? I didn’t ask to be in his apartment. His father was the one that hired me.

All I know is that I can’t show weakness with this guy. Like a typical alpha, they prey on the weak. It’s like showing red to a bull, like blood in the water to a hungry shark.

 

***

 

Not long later, Alice has come back and directed me and Ally to another smaller boardroom where she sets up a video for us to watch. The new hire orientation.  And in it, there’s a profile done for every management and leadership team member. I decide I’m going to like George unreservedly. They go over his background and he talks about his passion for customer relationship management and technology with excitement in his eyes.

After several more managers being interviewed, they cycle through the VPs, I see a gorgeous alphahole smirking at me from the screen.

“Aiden Carmichael is the eldest son of our founder and CEO, Quinten Carmichael…”

The narrator shows several slides with photo collections of Aiden being sporty and competitive, recounting all the many trophies. In school he was a jock and an academic, as well as captain of the debate team, the chess club, and the fucker was also homecoming king. How did he accomplish all that? Why would anyone take all that on?  He didn’t have an awkward stage, either. The man was absolute male perfection in every single slide. In every single photo, he’s looking increasingly broodier and hotter.  And I hate him for it.

He finally gives his mini interview where he talks about what he’s most passionate about and he says,

“Winning. If you really wanna be in the one percent, you need a primary focus and that focus? Win.  In work and in life, I surround myself with success. Do the same so that you’re never dragged down by incompetence or laziness.”

I roll my eyes and harrumph before I catch myself. Ally’s eyes move from the screen to me and under her breath, she says, “Such a hottie, but what an arrogant bastard, right? And he totally ran you through the mill in that boardroom like he was gunning for you. What the heck, right?”

I scoff and wave my hand like it’s no biggie. 

He’s obviously not a perfectionist. What perfectionist lives like a slob? Surround myself with success? And what? Old pizza boxes, beer cans, and fast food garbage? Fucking banana thief.

Another Carmichael works for the firm. Austin Carmichael. And he’s a cutie, too. Almost as hot as Aiden. I’d seen him try to joke with Aiden as we left the boardroom, but he only muttered something jerky and kept going.

Austin is VP of Finance and his demeanor is markedly different from Aiden’s. His part of the video is short and sweet as he talks about how being a bean counter doesn’t have to be boring, and how his team has fun while making sure we and the IRS all get paid. He’s really good-looking and seems humble. Ally gushes about how gorgeous he is. She’s right.

We finish watching the rest of the video and then Alice comes in and tells us we’ve got an hour and a half until lunch with the two Carmichaels, so we go back to our own cubicles to get situated.  I finish setting up my computer the way I like it, so I can keep my finger on the pulse of all the company’s social media accounts, website analytics, and content marketing channels. I finish reading through the employee onboarding binder and sign all the forms I’m supposed to sign, and take them out of the binder, then get up to drop them in a mail station next to Aiden’s office.

I see him doing something on his computer, wearing a pair of glasses, his suit blazer off, and his shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and holy shit, how is he hotter?

Between the glasses and the corded forearms, I stumble over my own feet and nearly wipe out. I regain composure and see he’s still staring at his screen, but one side of his mouth is up in half a smirk.  He definitely noticed me ogle him and nearly fall. My face burns hot as I try to play it off like it’s nothing.

What is wrong with me? This guy is an alphahole jerk lasagna thief who tried to embarrass me, no humiliate me, in front of my new coworkers and I trip at the sight of his forearms and a pair of glasses?  Humiliate might be a strong word. Discredit me?

Whatever. I don’t like him.

And I have another question. Why do eyeglasses on a hot guy make him even hotter? Even if he’s a jerk! It’s not fair. My eyeglasses make me look like a nerd. They don’t make me look hot. At all. Hence my wearing contact lenses most of the time.

I go back to my new desk and start clicking into my company email and find a series of emails from George that have been forwarded to me by Stacy, the marketing intern I met in the boardroom. She’s not much younger than me and seems like a go-getter. She told me she’d gotten a briefing from George before he went on leave and was forwarding a bunch of stuff to me on campaigns that were ongoing.

All she went over with me, I knew I’d be hitting the ground at full speed ahead. Good: throw myself into work and focus on winning. On being a one percenter like Aiden talked about.

Aiden. Fucking fucking Aiden.

I’ve already been strategizing for my approach to make sure I wow them with my skills, and that plan goes into effect immediately. Even more so after the way Aiden put me in front of a firing squad of questions that morning, too.

I am glad that at least Mr. Carmichael seems to like me.  Right now, that might be all I’ve got. That and Ally, who I’ve known for two hours who acts like we’ve been friends for a decade.

 

***

 

I do a backwards swan dive onto my bed and stare at the ceiling.  A long day. I am exhausted. Still jetlagged and just… pooped.

Mr. Carmichael took Ally and I to lunch, telling us Aiden had something come up. I was relieved to not have to sit with him for an hour.

Mr. Carmichael told me my new look was fantastic. I didn’t think I looked bad back in Buffalo, but I guess my makeover did more for me than I’d imagined.  Good to know it was worth every last dime in my savings account to have Layla make me over.

I did that the day before I found out Caitlin racked up my credit card, leaving myself flat broke.

He also apologized if he’d shocked me over the news of my office. He then said that when I started talking to him in the boardroom that day, it was very apparent I had potential. This job was originally going to go to Kevin, my former boss, until our conversation clued him into the fact that I was the one responsible for the social media success that had gotten our company on Carmichael acquisitions radar. I wasn’t surprised Kevin tried to take credit.  And now I knew why his signature wasn’t on my goodbye card. And why he wasn’t there for my goodbye cake.  He was pissed that he got passed over.

I tried to be humble about the compliments. I didn’t talk bad about my former coworkers. Mr. C. and I talked some more about the direction that he wanted to take things in, to capitalize on my methods at my old office to help Carmichael take our online presence to the next level.

I tried to fake a great mood for the lunch hour, but truth be told, I was annoyed about the Aiden situation, upset that my former coworkers were about to be unemployed. Mr. Carmichael said I should keep that quiet since they hadn’t started swinging the axe yet. He actually said that, with a smile, as if it wasn’t absolutely cruel. I was disappointed in my new CEO’s callousness but tried not to show it.

It didn’t help when Sonia, a coworker back in Buffalo posted on my Facebook page that she hopes I’m having a great day and then put a sad face and said that the office won’t be the same without me.

Talk about feeling guilty!

Speaking of Facebook, there was a message there from Steph in my inbox. I’m not ready to read that yet.  I saw the first two lines.

“I have some explaining to do and I hope you’ll give me a chance to do that …”

Nope. Not today, bitch.

Moral of that story? If you have a friend who seems like your bestie, but she has something nasty to say about absolutely everyone in the world, don’t kid yourself into thinking she has nothing bad to say about you.

On the ride back to the office from the restaurant, I changed my profile picture to a picture of my coral-painted toes covered in sand at the beach on Sunday and got 37 likes and a bunch of Where are you? type comments. I didn’t answer. Yet.

I was happy when lunch was over and looked forward to getting back to my desk, so I could rock my job. I didn’t deal with Aiden the rest of the day. His office was empty all afternoon.

After work, Ally and I took our cab with a different driver this time, back to the apartment building, which had a different lobby guard this time, and both pooped from our first day, said bye on the elevator when she got out first.  I think she picked up on my mood and she was subdued for my benefit.

“If you feel like hanging out later, text me,” she said.

“Gonna catch a wee nap,” I said, with a yawn.

“Me, too,” she said and waved bye as she left the elevator.